A06521:448
Special and chosen sermons of D. Martin Luther collected out of his writings and…
Special and chosen sermons of D. Martin Luther collected out of his writings and preachings for the necessary instruction and edification of such, as hunger and seek after the perfect knowledge and inestimable glory which is in Christ Jesus, to the comfort and salvation of their souls. Englished by VV.G.Special and chosen sermons of D. Martin Luther collected out of his writings and preachings for the necessary instruction and edification of such, as hunger and seeke after the perfect knowledge and inestimable glorie which is in Christ Iesu, to the comfort and saluation of their soules. Englished by VV.G.
London: printed by Thomas Vautroullier, 1578
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Whereas therefore the Apostle saith here, Our salvation is now nearer us, he saith the same thing in the Epistle to Titus in other words: The grace of God, which bringeth salvation, hath appeared, that is, hath sprung forth, and is every where commonly preached: although it was not hid before in any of the Saints, notwithstanding it was not yet commonly known unto the world. After the same sort the Scripture speaketh in many places, when it sometime saith that Christ is to come, sometime, that he is come, although he always hath bin, and is in all the elect. Howbeit because he had not before his resurrection come to all by public preaching, the Scripture speaketh diversly of his coming. For because of this public preaching he came in the flesh, being made man, for his incarnation had not bin profitable to any,1 if the Gospel had not thereupon bin preached, by which he came into the whole world, and whereby it is commonly known, why he was made man, whereby that blessing promised to Abraham, is now published, and made common to all which by the Gospel believe in Christ. Hereupon Paul saith very well, Rom. 1. that the Gospel was promised of God, &c. as though he would say, although God hath promised every where in the writings of the Prophets his son in the flesh, yet forasmuch as all that should be done, that the Gospel might be preached abroad in the world, whereby he cometh spiritually to the minds of the believers, (which coming only bringeth salvation, and is far to be preferred before that coming in the flesh, inasmuch as it was done because of this) I say rather that God promised by the Prophets in the Scriptures the Gospel concerning his son. For God considered the Gospel and our faith in all these things, for which he would also have him to be made man, that the Gospel might be preached of him, that being made man, he hath saved us by his death, and that the salvation which he hath wrought, might go into the whole world, and be made near unto all. Some have taught four comings of ⟨p. 241⟩Christ, according to the four sundays in Advent as they call it, but this coming of Christ by the Gospel, which is most necessary of all, and of which all do depend, of which Paul here speaketh, this coming I say, they could not see, inasmuch as they are ignorant, both what the Gospel is, and to what end it was given.